Li Miaoyuan

The western suburbs of the capital.

The third day after the earthquake.

The originally gentle peaks of the Western Hills were now completely unrecognizable.

The spatial rift was no longer hidden in the night sky; instead, it lay starkly exposed beneath the daylight.

Inside the rift, a massive mountain range, shrouded in mist and filled with towering ancient trees, had been forcefully squeezed into the real world.

It was a folded space that had been sealed for a thousand years.

Now, the seal was broken.

Within a ten-kilometer radius.

All modern communication devices had turned into scrap metal. There was no signal, no radar. Even the most advanced military satellites could only capture a blurry mass of white light over this area.

The temporary command post of the Longyuan Special Operations Team was set up ten kilometers away.

Gu Qinghan stood before the command desk, her expression extremely grave.

Her right wrist was wrapped in thick bandages—an injury she sustained three days ago in Shen Fei's office.

"Colonel, the drones crashed less than three hundred meters after going in."

An intelligence officer reported, his forehead covered in sweat.

"It's not electromagnetic interference. It's that unknown spiritual energy causing physical damage to the precision electronic components."

"Also... something has happened in the surrounding neighborhoods."

The intelligence officer pulled up several video clips captured by perimeter surveillance.

In the footage.

The roadside greenery was growing like crazy, with vines tens of meters high wrapping around tall buildings.

A stray cat had swelled to the size of a leopard, its tail showing a semi-transparent phantom as it bit clean through a metal streetlight pole.

But the most terrifying element was the people.

"Since yesterday afternoon, seventeen ordinary citizens within the capital have spontaneously awakened superpowers. Due to a lack of guidance, they have all gone out of control and gone on a rampage. It has already caused severe structural damage and casualties."

"This backflow of spiritual energy is forcibly altering Earth's ecosystem!"

Gu Qinghan stared intently at the screen.

This was no longer a matter of dealing with a few criminals.

This was the subversion of the world's rules.

"Expand the blockade line outward by another five kilometers. No one is allowed near the western suburbs," Gu Qinghan ordered, her voice hoarse.

She turned to look in the direction of the Western Hills.

That ancient mountain gate, bearing the four flamboyant characters: Taiyi Daoist Sect.

It pressed down on her so heavily she could barely breathe.

...

At the same time.

Within the Second Ring Road of the capital, at the Shen family's courtyard.

Shen Fei stood on the roof of the main house.

The wind made his black shirt flutter wildly.

He paid no mind to the chaos erupting across the capital due to the revival of spiritual energy.

Those out-of-control feral cats and newly awakened espers didn't even qualify as cannon fodder in the face of the Shen family's armed forces.

Shen Fei's gaze remained locked on the western suburbs.

The Eye of Destiny remained active.

Above the mountain gate named Taiyi Daoist Sect, there was an extremely blinding pillar of golden light.

Thick and solid.

The texture of this light pillar was completely different from any Child of Destiny Shen Fei had ever seen.

The destiny of the martial arts system was like heavy earth.

The destiny of the superpower system was like violent lightning.

But this light pillar was like the wind.

A wind that blew upward. It was incredibly light, yet hidden in the deepest part of that lightness was a blade sharp enough to sever anything.

Shen Fei looked at the annotations on the system panel.

[Detected Child of Destiny of the Cultivation System.]

[Name: Li Miaoyuan.]

[Current Realm: Peak Foundation Establishment.]

[Grade Evaluation: SSSS.]

This was the first time the system had used a categorization word like System.

Shen Fei closed the Eye of Destiny.

He leaped down from the roof, landing steadily in the courtyard.

"Keep an eye on the western suburbs. Report to me immediately if there's any movement."

Shen Fei instructed Ling Shuang, who was standing under the corridor.

He turned and walked into the study.

The study was very quiet.

Shen Fei sat behind the large red sandalwood desk.

Leaning back in his chair, he repeatedly chewed over the system annotation he had just seen in his mind.

Cultivation System.

Peak Foundation Establishment.

His understanding of these two terms was limited to the settings found in web novels.

But in reality, just how much destructive power did this entail? How fast was their speed? How high was their defense? Did they have any special, lethal methods?

Shen Fei knew absolutely nothing.

This was the first time since coming to this world that he had encountered a pure information blind spot.

In the past, when dealing with ancient martial arts inheritors like Lin Yu, or espers who controlled vengeful spirits like Chu Ye, the system would always provide a clear weakness analysis or a killable evaluation prompt.

But this time.

Facing this SSSS-grade cultivator who had walked out of the folded space.

Aside from giving basic panel data, the system didn't offer a single tactical suggestion.

It didn't even pop up a green light indicating they were killable.

The system was silent.

Shen Fei's fingers tapped lightly against the desk.

"System."

Shen Fei questioned coldly in his mind.

"Explain. Why was there no early warning regarding the background of the Taiyi Daoist Sect?"

[Ding!]

[Replying to Host: The folded space where the Taiyi Daoist Sect is located has existed in Earth's high-dimensional interstice for over a thousand years. The cultivation laws operating within it are independent of Earth's current conventional plane.]

[Before the folded space was opened, the system could not penetrate the high-dimensional barrier to conduct a scan.]

Shen Fei stopped tapping his fingers on the desk.

Over a thousand years.

That meant the history of the cultivation system on this planet was far older than any modern technological records.

Furthermore, the system was not omniscient and omnipotent.

Its understanding of the cultivation system had blind spots.

Shen Fei's eyes became extremely dark.

He didn't like this feeling of things slipping out of his control.

But he wasn't agitated. On the contrary, this long-lost sense of crisis, filled with unknown challenges, made his blood begin to run slightly hot.

[Warning: The backflow of spiritual energy has broken Earth's conventional rules.]

[The Host must find the next evolutionary opportunity for the Heaven-Swallowing Demonic Art as soon as possible. Otherwise, when facing high-dimensional cultivation laws, you may encounter absolute suppression.]

The system's final prompt confirmed Shen Fei's suspicions.

The power system had undergone a generational shift.

Would the Heavenly Demon Body and a Grandmaster's true qi still maintain a crushing advantage when facing a cultivator at the Peak of Foundation Establishment?

The answer was unknown.

Just as Shen Fei was deep in thought.

Buzz—

The private phone placed on the desk vibrated.

Shen Fei picked up the phone.

Caller ID: Ye Qingyu.

This was the first time Ye Qingyu had proactively called since the Ye family submitted to the Shen family.

Shen Fei answered the call.

He didn't make a sound.

The other end of the line was also quiet; only Ye Qingyu's slightly rapid breathing could be heard.

A full five seconds passed.

"Shen Fei."

Ye Qingyu's voice came through, laced with a trace of unconcealable exhaustion and palpitation.

"My hand... or rather, the Light-element origin you helped me sort out."

"Ever since the earthquake in the western suburbs yesterday noon, it has been in a state of extreme hyperarousal."

"I can barely suppress it anymore."

Ye Qingyu's voice trembled slightly.

"What exactly is over there in the western suburbs?"

Shen Fei leaned back in his chair.

"That is the source for espers like you, or rather, the source of your supernatural system."

Shen Fei's tone was flat, hiding nothing.

"Spiritual energy."

"A cultivation sect has appeared in the western suburbs."

On the other end of the phone, Ye Qingyu audibly gasped.

Although she was born into a top-tier aristocratic family like the Ye family, she had never encountered a worldview-shattering concept like "cultivation."

"If you feel like you can't suppress it, come to the secret room in the courtyard immediately. I'll help you deal with it."

Just as Shen Fei finished speaking...

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The call was disconnected.

Shen Fei looked at the black screen of his phone, raising an eyebrow.

Ye Qingyu hung up on him?

This was not the action of a woman who had been completely conquered, whose affection level had reached a state of absolute submission.

Unless...

She had encountered a sudden emergency where she didn't even have time to cry for help.

Shen Fei stood up.

He grabbed his black jacket draped over the chair.

"Ling Shuang."

Shen Fei pushed open the study door and strode out.

"Get the car ready. We're going to the Ye family manor."

"Yes, sir." Ling Shuang didn't waste any words and immediately turned to make the arrangements.

The Maybach drove out of the courtyard.

On the Second Ring Road overpass, traffic was unusually congested.

Due to various bizarre incidents triggered by the sudden influx of spiritual energy, traffic across the entire capital had fallen into a semi-paralyzed state.

Shen Fei sat in the back seat.

He watched the panicked crowds outside the window.

The world was undergoing a drastic upheaval.

And in this upheaval, Li Miaoyuan, standing at the mountain gate in the western suburbs, was the first god attempting to establish a new order on this land.

Shen Fei closed his eyes.

The Heavenly Demon True Qi circulated slowly and heavily within his body.

"Cultivators."

"You'd better not disappoint me."